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Active, not recruitingNCT06071793FIT-ICUUpdated Jul 24, 2025

Family Integration in Therapy Activities in the Intensive Care Unit: The FIT-ICU Feasibility Study

An interventional study of Family involvement in Critical Illness and Delirium, sponsored by St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Active, not recruiting at 3 sites in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-07-24.

Sponsored by St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Sep 2025, 1 year ago, but the record still lists the study as active, not recruiting.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
20
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

An ICU admission is stressful for not only patients but their families as well. Research has shown that involving family members during a loved one's ICU stay can be helpful for them, but there is not clear direction on the best way to do this. For patients, family presence as well as early movement during their ICU stay has been shown to help recovery from things like delirium (a state of confusion) faster, and might prevent the weakness that can happen with a stay in the ICU. In this study, the investigators will explore whether having family help with moving patients through physiotherapy guided exercise can help both patients and families have a better experience and result from their ICU stay.

The investigators hypothesize that family involvement in activities as part of an overall physiotherapy treatment plan will provide a tangible means for family members to engage in the care of their critically ill loved one, thus improving outcomes for both critically ill patients and family members.

02

Conditions studied

  • Critical Illness
  • Delirium
03

In context

Critical Illness

1,881 studies on the registry are indexed under Critical Illness; 462 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 90 across 979 interventional studies indexed under Critical Illness.

Browse Critical Illness studies →

Lead sponsor

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton is the lead sponsor of 137 studies on the registry; 31 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Adults (≥18 years) in the ICU
  • Anticipated length of stay ≥48 hours for whom a request for physiotherapy has been placed by the treating physician
  • Appropriateness for physiotherapy confirmed by the unit's physiotherapist.
  • Families will be eligible if they are able to be present in ICU during physiotherapist or research team work hours until they are cleared to deliver activities independently, then at least three times weekly thereafter.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who are receiving end of life care
  • Patients who have high risk injuries including spinal cord injury or spinal fractures, post-operative from spinal surgery, and untreated hip or long bone fractures
  • Patients at risk of raised intracranial pressure (ICP) (e.g. Malignant middle cerebral artery stroke, large subarachnoid hemorrhage), admitted post trauma activation, post-operative from brain surgery or with external ventricular drain (EVD) in situ.
  • Patients who are bed-bound or require mechanical lift at baseline who would not otherwise be offered physiotherapy services.
  • Exclusion criteria for families include any major barriers to participation, i.e., physical, cognitive, emotional or capacity to understand and communicate with the team.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
20 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    All participants

    Patients to receive mobility interventions from trained family members

    Other: Family involvement

Interventions

  • OtherFamily involvement

    Family delivery of mobility activities

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Feasibility - consent rate

    We define a successful consent rate as \> 70% of SDMs or patients approached to consent, agreeing to take part in the study

    Time frame: Study duration - up to one year

  2. Feasibility - recruitment rate

    We define a successful recruitment rate as achieving enrolment of four patients per month over the duration of the trial

    Time frame: Study duration - up to one year

  3. Feasibility - protocol adherence

    We define successful adherence as average family involvement in ≥ 3 sessions/week. Furthermore, adherence to documentation of involvement will be successful if documented by family for ≥80% of sessions

    Time frame: During ICU stay, censored at 1 month

  4. Feasibility - resources

    Physiotherapist and nurse outcomes will include inability to train families due to physiotherapy or team resources, and number of sessions per week cancelled due to inadequate staffing resources during the patients ICU stay.

    Time frame: Study duration - up to one year

Secondary outcomes

  1. Patient Delirium

    CAM-ICU

    Time frame: During ICU stay, censored at 1 month

  2. Patient & Family PTSD symptoms

    IES-R

    Time frame: 1 & 3 months

  3. Adverse Events

    Falls, hypotension, bradycardia, line removal, unplanned extubation, inappropriate family intervention, unexpected injuries

    Time frame: During ICU stay, censored at 1 month

  4. Family satisfaction

    23-item Family Satisfaction in the ICU questionnaire; HADS scale

    Time frame: 1 & 3 months

07

Study locations

3 sites
  • Brant Community Healthcare System
    Brantford, Ontario N3R 1G9, Canada
  • St Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
    Hamilton, Ontario L8N 4A6, Canada
  • Juravinski Hospital
    Hamilton, Ontario L8V 1C3, Canada
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 24, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06071793
Lead sponsor
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
Responsible party
Kimberley Lewis (Assistant Professor, Intensivist, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 6, 2023
Start date
Nov 30, 2023
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2025 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 30, 2025 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 24, 2025

Study contacts

Kimberley Lewis, MD
principal investigator · The Research Institute of St Joe's Hamilton
Laiya Carayannopoulos, MD
principal investigator · The Research Institute of St Joe's Hamilton

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Jul 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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